Poppy turns your iPhone into a modern day View-Master

When we were kids, the only way you saw any kind of media in 3D was to don a pair of those red and blue glasses, or with a View-Master. Neither of these were all that great, but they were still fun to play with. I can still remember spending lots of time popping those little discs into the slot, and clicking the images past, one by one. With all of the joys of modern technology, surely we’d have something better than that today, right? Well, we do now.

Poppy is a somewhat bulky-looking black box that turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a 3D camera. You just slide your device into the opening, flip out the end, and you’re ready to start shooting. The interesting thing is how it works. There are no electronics inside the Poppy. Instead, it uses a set of specially-positioned mirrors, and the existing camera on your iPhone to capture still images and videos in 3D.

When you’re ready to view the footage that you’ve shot, you can use the same device to watch the video, just like you would on your beloved childhood toy. Though you don’t have to pull down a lever every time you want to move onto the next image or video. Another nice feature is that you’re not limited to just watching videos that you shot with your iPhone. Regular stereographic videos on YouTube, or 3D movies can be watched with the Poppy. And alternatively, the videos you shoot can then be watched on a 3D TV.

While this is part of a Kickstarter campaign, it has already more than doubled the amount of funding needed, in just a few short days. For just a $49 pledge, you’ll be able to get your very own Poppy when they ship this December.